The Puppet Technique, and from their performance in the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Cloth Binding Technique also seem to be common techniques of theirs. Shinobi from this village believe that the accomplishment of a mission predominates the lives of the ninja trying to accomplish it. As such, they are known to be ruthless in battle meaning to them, failure is not an option. Should failure seem inevitable, a Suna shinobi would almost surely try to make a success of their mission in some way or another, as seen when Kankurō secretly retrieved from a piece of Sasori's clothing, as a means to track Akatsuki to their hideout.

The standard attire of this village consists of blue uniforms underneath green flak jackets (both of which are depicted as shades of beige in the anime). They also tend to wrap their heads with turbans and their legs with bandages.

The first passage to travel into the valley is in a cleft between two cliff faces which provides a natural defence for the village making the area very hard to attack. The buildings also seem to be made of clay or stucco which would help to keep the buildings cool and allow them to also withstand the raging sand storms which are common in the area.

Contents

History

The Kazekage's office building.

Sunagakure was founded by the First Kazekage, who gathered the desert-dwelling shinobi under his control with his overwhelming power. At some point the village would come into possession of the One-Tailed Shukaku, and in the coming years the beast was sealed into three different hosts[1] so that its abilities could be studied. The Third Kazekage was able to emulate Shukaku's abilities, earning recognition as the strongest Kazekage in history.

The Suna Hospital.

Some time in Sunagakure's history they created the Puppet Brigade in an attempt to create a technique that would give life to their puppets in order to increase their combat effectiveness. Research for such a technique was started and Chiyo eventually developed One's Own Life Reincarnation, but use of the technique came at too high a price at needing the user's life to complete the technique, thus the research was called off and the village continued to use normal puppets. Sasori left the village after the emptiness of lacking parentallove finally reached a breaking point, but later returned, kidnapped, and murdered the Third, likely sparking the Third Shinobi World War with Sunagakure's attempts to find him.[2]

Sunagakure frequently fought with Konohagakure; Chiyo's attempts to poison enemies during the Second Shinobi World War were often counteracted by Tsunade. To compound this fact, following the Third Shinobi War, the Wind Daimyō began outsourcing missions to Konoha, leading to a lack of funding for Sunagakure. To make up for the loss of military power this created, the Fourth Kazekage had Chiyo seal Shukaku into its third host, his own son: Gaara.[3] It was hoped that Gaara would become a weapon for the village, but the power of Shukaku was too unstable and overwhelming for Gaara and the idea was abandoned. The village then had to rely on the development of new techniques and trading of gold dust in order to keep its' standing within the Five Great Shinobi Countries.[4] As time passed, however, the Fourth came to appreciate Gaara's increasing control and returned to relying on him as a weapon.

Another village that this village has frequently fought with, unsurprisingly due to their close proximity, is Iwagakure. This has left the two villages age old enemies with each side holding a grudge against the other, a fact which makes them highly unwilling allies.

Invasion of Konoha

Main article: Invasion of Konoha
At some point, Sunagakure was approached by Orochimaru with a proposition for a joint invasion of Konoha. The Fourth Kazekage was killed and impersonated by Orochimaru to give the impression of support, and Sunagakure was falsely led to a devastating loss against Konoha's forces. Once Orochimaru's deceit was discovered Sunagakure re-allied itself with Konoha, gaining much from the peace and leading to new prosperity for the village. By Part II, Gaara would be made Fifth Kazekage to replace his father.

An urgent message was relayed to Konoha for assistance via messenger bird. After Gaara was rescued and revived by Chiyo, at the cost of her own life, he was safely returned to Suna and is currently still the Kazekage. He lost his tailed beast, but still retained the ability to manipulate sand.

Trivia

The second fanbook gives Sunagakure a population size of two out of five stars, a military strength of two out of five stars, and an economic strength of two out of five stars. This gives it the lowest overall score of all the five main shinobi villages.

Despite the element of sand being unique to the One-Tailed Shukaku and its jinchūriki, ninja from this village have been shown to be capable of utilising sand as a tool as well.

Strangely enough, none of the characters from the Sunagakure have stated last name in the series, even though it's the second most frequent village in Naruto.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, several other Suna-nin were seen wielding similar fans alongside Temari.[5][6] This is an indication that the use of tessenjutsu is a skill generally taught in the village.